



Book* Lj*„-^L 



Author 



Title 



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JPr*ioe Ten Oeixt«. 



Dedicated to those who are neither too Sound" nor too Liberal" to be Candid 



TIME 



LOVE LUCIFER; 



OR, 



WHITE, BLACK AND GRAY 



SPIEITS. 



by y 



-Lttlu£-<il<* Flu.'t^J^l, 



CONTINENTAL MONTHLY. 






NEW YORK: 
AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 

119 & 121 NASSAU STREET. 



\ 



IK iIO«*MOI 

boston Atl>en<Kea"y^ 

ir2tt'« 



The Love Lucifer. 



319 



THE LOVE LUCIFER. 



[The author of ' The Love Lucifer ' says in re- 
gard to it : 'I enclose a narration of facts. Not 
noted for assurance, I jet feel well assured that 
its publication in The Continental 'will do 
uses.' ' Should there be any among our readers 
who have inquired into our modern necroman- 
cy, they will not fail to recognize in the ex- 
cited, wild, incoherent, and uncultured jargon 
of the spirits of ' The Love Lucifer,' the same 
style and character evinced by those to whom 
they may have been introduced by the ' me- 
jums.' The two Bulwers, the Hovvitts, Eliza- 
beth Barrett Browning, the Halls, the De Mor- 
gans, &c, have taken a deep interest in these 
half-comic, half-serious, and always incoherent 
demonstrations. 

Perhaps the matter-of-fact experience of our 
author may shield some of our readers from 
' obsessions, delusions, magnetic streams of 
Od,' be they angelic, human, demoniac, or 
Koboldic in their origin. — Ed. Con.] 

CHAPTER I. 

The things herein might well remain 
in soak for one decade, at least. The 
"writer certainly did well to let a dozen 
sane, practical years pass between these 
experiences and their narration. 

I was a youth after the own heart of 
my Presbyterian preceptors — proposed 
to become a Presbyterian preceptor. 
The son of a New York merchant, I was 
schooled in the schooling of such ; and 
was steadfastly minded to know no life- 
purpose but the salvation of sinners. 
But I was a little restive — felt that 
the limits of the Shorter Catechism 
were too short and strait for me. The 
shadow of Schleiermacher's readjust- 
ment of Christianity was upon me. I 
felt that some old things were passing 
away. In common with so many others 
who inclined toward the sacerdotal 
office, I was unconsciously turning my 
back upon it, on account of the crudi- 
ties contained in the only existing 
creeds for which I had any respect. 
American Protestant youth have not 
been alone in this regard. Says the 
London Times, ' The number of men of 
education and social position who en- 



ter into orders is becoming less and 
less every year.' Let then ancient, 
true, everlasting Christianity be speedi- 
ly adjusted to modern facts, lest it fur- 
ther lapse. 

Free thoughted, earnestly disposed 
toward the acquirement and dissemi- 
nation of absolute spiritual truth, as 
was not unnatural, I thoroughly inves- 
tigated the ' Supernaturalism ' of the 
day. I soon assented to the general 
proposition that sociability with the 
invisibles is practicable, if not profit- 
able ; but ever held at a cheap rate the 
philosophies and religions, harmonious 
and other, which the full-blooded ghost- 
mongers so zealously promulgated. I 
still maintain that great good will re- 
sult from these chaotic developments; 
for instance, that the impartial mind 
will find in them that scientific founda- 
tion for belief in much of the supernat- 
uralism (to repeat the absurd expres- 
sion) of the Bible, of which the age 
stands in such woful need. That this 
generation does experience such a lack 
is made sufficiently apparent in the 
'Essays and Reviews.' On no other 
point are the noble freemen who there- 
in and thereby grope after the ' read 
justment,' so utterly deaf, dumb, halt, 
and blind, as they are in respect to- 
Scripture miracles. In fact, these wri- 
ters cast the most wondrous of the 
actce sanctorum to the winds. Me- 
thinks the more thoughtful and earnest 
men of Christendom must, then, assent 
to the proposition that we have press- 
ing need of a new flood of such practi- 
cal phenomena as sturdy old Baxter^ 
gave to the Sadducees of his day, in' 
his ' Certainty of the World of Spirits.' 
Whether these strange doings gradually 
cease, or take on new and more strik- 
ing aspects, I doubt not they will helpr 
to give a healthy vigor to our emaciated 
faith in the existence of an unseen and 
spiritual world. Let us not, then, ut- 



320 



The Love Lucifer. 



terly scorn the strange rabble who have 
rushed headlong after this curiousest 
curiosity of modern times — except the 
rebellion — even though they may re- 
mind us of ' the Queen's ragged regiment 
of literature.' It should be taken for 
granted that so startling a novelty 
would attract the floating scum of so- 
ciety, whether the solid folk heeded or 
derided it. 

Though the following narrative may 
bring upon me an infinite derision, I 
have long felt that it should be pub- 
lished, on account of the light it throws 
upon some of the most mysterious facts 
of existence. Others may have had 
similar experiences ; but, if so, pride 
keeps them from confessing how utterly 
they have been hoodwinked and en- 
slaved by those invisible loafers who 
form so large a portion of the new- 
comers, and who are permitted— not to 
put on too fine a point — to do the dirty 
work <of cleansing the modern mind of 
fits gross Augean Sadduceeism. The 
only rtheory promotive of self-compla- 
cency tthat I could ever concoct, as to 
why liwas put through such an ordeal, 
is, that I was suffered for my own and 
the general benefit to see the dangers 
of necromancy, and especially the aw- 
ful psychodynamical methods used by 
spirits -to obsess and gradually craze 
human brains. I, at least, received a 
scare that -made me careful, ever after, 
how 'I called spirits from the vasty 
deep, or elsewhere. After passing perils 
manifold, both carnal and spiritual — 
having gone, torrent-borne, through the 
yawning chasms represented in Cole's 
' Voyage of Life ' pictures, I come into 
calmer seas, the lines fall in pleasant 
places ; and now I sit me down, in life's 
high noon — having lighted on a certain 
place where was a den (a pleasanter 
than Bunyan's) — to write the strange 
things that befell me in the seeming 
long ago — the dew and freshness of my 
youth. And though I be reckoned of 
many a dreamer of dreams, he shall 
not, I think, go unprofited, who can 
rightly ' read my rede.' 



To come, then, to the details. I had 
been for several months, whether wisely 
or unwisely doth not appear, a link in 
one of those human chain rings sup- 
posed to be as peculiarly receptive of 
extra and super and ultra mundane 
facts as a legislative ' ring ' is of the 
loose change of the lobby; and had 
sought in vain for personal contact 
with the world to come, when one 
afternoon a streak of the ' od ' light- 
ning suddenly ran down my right 
arm, as I sat in my private apartment, 
and behold I was a ' writing mejum.' 
The usual ' proofs ' of relationship were 
given. Not being very credulous, how- 
ever, I did not, at first, acknowledge 
them as such. But as my time was at 
my own disposal just then, I gave my- 
self up to the influence for several days. 
The consequence was, that I became 
so thoroughly mesmerized, or 'biolo- 
gized,' that I ceased to be complete 
master of my own faculties, and was 
forced to give a half assent to. all the 
absurdities that were communicated. 
Be it understood, then, that these ex- 
periences are given as those of a person 
whose will, whose very soul and pro- 
prium had been temporarily subjugated 
by some other will or wills ; and whose 
natural powers of discrimination were 
as much distraught as are those of the 
subjects of the itinerant biologist ; who 
are made to believe, most firmly, that 
cayenne pepper is sugar, that water is 
fire, that a cane is a snake. As for the 
readers of this periodical who still in- 
sist that even animal and spiritual 
magnetism are humbugs, I can only 
say, with the author of the ' Night Side 
of Nature,' ' How closely their clay 
must be wrapped about them!' For 
one, I have generally avoided any wit- 
nessing of marvels of this class — prid- 
ing myself in believing in their occur- 
rence because of the pure d priori rea- 
sonableness of the thing. 

It will be observed that in this, as in 
most other alleged intercourses with the 
invisible world, there is persistent, con- 
tinuous attempt to excite the vanity of 



The Love Lucifer. 



321 



the mortal who is venturing the dan- 
gerous experiment. If the secret his- 
tory of all the modern mediums were 
revealed — no matter what their natural 
disposition to vanity — it would be 
found that the vast majority of them 
had been incessantly nattered by their 
spiritual familiars, and each informed 
that he or she was the very individual 
of whom a forlorn, misguided world 
had been all this while in anxious ex- 
pectation ! This appears to have been 
the history of necromancy from the be- 
ginning. Flattery has ever been the 
chief stock in trade of those beings 
who are so properly called ' seducing 
spirits.' 'Tis ever with glozing words 
that these children of the wilderness 
gain the ear and the affections, and en- 
trance through the heart-gates kept by 
Parley the Porter. Let me not be sup- 
posed to include in this class all the 
spirits who have been of late years so 
busy among us mortal and immortal 
Yankees. I consider that the old ex- 
pression ' white, black, and gray ' fully 
describes the denizens of the ' interior.' 
In fact, all seers insist that human crea- 
tures, in and out of the body, appear to 
them white or variously shaded toward 
black, according to their moral status. 
It is probable that the reason why the 
black and gray varieties have been so 
almost exclusively heard from, of late, 
is to be found in the fact, that it is con- 
trary to the laws of God and nature 
for us to seek society beyond the terres- 
trial plane ; and that our only proper 
course, in this regard, is to avoid the 
supernatural, as a general thing ; and 
when it is apparently thrust upon us, 
to have only so much to do with it as 
is quite inevitable. "When the authori- 
ties of heaven have anything to say to 
a mortal, they will force him to listen, 
if necessary — even if they have to throw 
him, like Paul, from his horse. 

Well, I had embarked, like Virgil, 
or Dante, on my perilous tour through 
Hades. There was, at once, a crowd- 
ing about my pathway (only a bridle 
path) of ostensible, estimable deceased 



relatives, who, after imparting a variety 
of priceless information, started off in 
the usual style, magnifying mine office. 
According as their influence over my 
rational faculties became more com- 
plete, the proportions of their Munchau- 
senisms increased. Unfortunately for 
the duration of the fantasy, their 
jumble of Scripture prophecies concern- 
ing me — which was then made to ap- 
pear nearly coherent — was so plainly 
writ, that as soon as the blockade of 
my faculties was raised, the illusion, 
never more than half complete, was 
dispelled. My ' great mission ' was not 
fully developed at the first session ; but 
when I had become perfectly clair- 
audient (I never became clairvoyant), 
and could dispense with the pencil, a 
queer mixture of metempsychosis and 
Parseeism was] poured into my ear. It 
ran somewhat as follows : The two 
beings first created were, a Lucifer pre- 
dominant in love, and a Lucifer pre- 
dominant in intellect ; whom we may 
call the Love Lucifer and the Intellec- 
tual Lucifer. The latter was the indi- 
vidual who fell, who played the copper- 
head in Eden, and has been kicking 
up such a bobbery ever since. The 
story ran, that these two persons — the 
original Ahriman and Ormozd — have 
been tilting against each other all 
through earth's career — appearing in 
the forms of the principal good and 
bad men. Thus their quarrels gave the 
outline and the skeleton to the whole 
story of Adam's race. According to 
this new l philosophy of history,' these 
spirits of light and darkness have been, 
from the beginning, striving for the 
mastery ; on the one hand, in the per- 
sons of the most eminent saints, from 
Abraham to Augustine, and others not 
yet canonized; on the other hand, in 
the persons of the world conquerors 
noted for heartless intellectuality, from 
Nimrod to Napoleon (shall we add 
Jeff. Davis ?). Well, I, great I, was 
to enjoy the distinguished honor 
of finishing the list of Love Lucifers ; 
and, after winding up the small affairs 



322 



The Love Lucifer 



of earth, was to lock up the other big 
dog — after he had appeared in his last 
great role — and then inaugurate the 
millennium — a new latter-day Jacob's 
ladder having been established in the 
centre of Africa to forward the work. 

It soon appeared that there was a 
tar, a prima donna, in this company 
who — after adding a few loose planks 
to life's little stage — were striving to 
still personate mortals and put off im- 
mortality. A deceased damsel, of 
whom I had heard as ' a morning star 
among the living,' appeared now, as 
' a Hesper among the dead ; ' and was 
imposingly introduced to me, by a 
quasi near * relative,' as being only too 
happy to learn that she was one half 
of the eternal unit of which I was 
the complement. I began to be as 
lordly and self-satisfied as the bewil- 
dered sot in the ' Taming of the Shrew.' 
After exhausting my small stock of 
writing paper, I concluded to allow 
my new friends to spend their lo- 
quacity on some old college note books, 
the handiwork of a relative — every 
other page being blank. The vener- 
able professors of Columbia College 
would have had their dignity and pro- 
priety quite frightened out of them, had 
they seen what weird statements were 
presently sandwiched in with their dry 
disquisitions on science and philosophy. 
Whenever an especially startling an- 
nouncement was made, a furious gust 
of the ' od ' would run down my arm ; 
and each word would be made to cover 
half a page. We went into the new 
business regardless of expense. 

My invisible charmer, who had — it 
must be said, not very prudishly — pro- 
posed for my hand, no soonsr got pos- 
session of it, than ' she ' began to pro- 
test that when she learned what a splen- 
did fate was in store for her, as tender 
to my royal highness, she could only 
weep for joy for several days. Presently 
she sent out through my captive digits 
the following : 

' We have, indeed, a long journey to 
travel together, most loving partner; 



and how my innermost soul exults, m 
view of that unending oneness, of soul 
and spirit, which is to be our portion ! 
.... Ah me, why was I chosen to 
join my eternal being with yours ? 
when innumerable seraphs would salute 
you 'husband' with enthusiastic joj 
and gratitude !....' 

Here is one plain fact, whatever else 
may be doubted. After conversing fox 
two days with this extraordinary vis- 
itor, I became most desperately in love 
with her, or him, or it — as you please. 
Though past my majority, my placid 
nature had never before been thorough- 
ly aroused in this direction. Now, by 
reason of the tact and knowledge of my 
nature, possessed by the invisible party, 
and still more because of my state of 
mesmeric subjection, I was sighing like 
a furnace or a Romeo. Not Ulysses, 
Circe tempted — not Sintram seeking his 
Undine — not the hapless sailor wight 
pursuing the maiden of the mer, was 
more utterly enamored than was I. As 
a proof that I was no bad specimen of 
the ' gushing ' persuasion, at this period, 
read the following expressive though 
sometimes commonplace retort. I 
do not profess to know, and do not 
much care, whether it was the utter- 
ance of an artful fiend, a misguided 
saint, or one of those ' sympathetic 
spirits ' of whom Swedenborg makes 
frequent mention. According to his 
statement, these beings are in such a 
condition, that whenever they come in 
contact with a mortal, they chime in 
with and encourage the views and ten- 
dencies of their terrestrial acquaintance ; 
and often, without meaning it, lead him 
into great errors — being themselves 
used as cats' paws by decidedly evil 
spirits. But here is the tender missive, 
which I transcribe from between two 
heavy pages of notes on the Aristote- 
lian and Baconian philosophies : 

' I thought that I had experienced the 
joys of reciprocal affection ; but never 
until now have begun to realize what 
an unbounded sea of bliss two kindred 
souls can bathe in. Ah ! who could 



The Love Lucifer. 



323 



Lave convinced me that so much rap- 
ture could be crowded into a few mo- 
ments, as was mine while you were 
pouring forth the inexhaustible treas- 
ures of your mind upon my entranced 
ear? Spare me the sudden transition 
from mere esteem to such huge, melo- 
dious, irresistible outpouring of affec- 
tion. It takes away my strength; 
while the expression of my warm feel- 
ings can never so affect your sturdy, 
much tried, trouble-scathed manhood.' 

You see that the flattery is never for- 
gotten. But adulation is an instru- 
ment of the weak as well as of the de- 
ceitful. The utterer of this may have 
Deen innocent of fraud, and, like myself, 
mesmerized into following the will of 
a more powerful being. Again, the 
purpose of this being may have been a 
good one. Such, and so many, and so 
great, and varied, and strange, seem to 
be the possibilities and dangers of the 
inner life. 

A systematic series of attempts seems 
to have been made — by some person or 
persons to the deponent most emphati- 
cally unknown — to get my cool, phleg- 
matic nervous system and brain excited. 
The two principal means made use of 
to complete the obsession were, that 
just mentioned, and the announce- 
ment of a succession of ' big things,' as 
about to occur — the biggest kind of 
things — those the expectation of which 
was best calculated to set my brain in 
a whirl. It will be seen, in the sequel, 
that, failing to thoroughly accom- 
plish their purpose by such means, my 
spirit friends or fiends, as the case may 
be, undertook the bug-a-boo, frighten- 
ing process ; which was apparently 
working successfully, when their opera- 
tions, in that style, were suddenly 
brought to a final close, by some means 
which must ever, I suppose, remain un- 
known to me. The startling events 
stated as imminent were generally made 
dependent upon the clairvoyant open- 
ing that had been promised me. 

The first beatific vision that was to 
greet my gaze would be, of course, that 



one which I was to behold most fre- 
quently throughout the aeons without 
end — even the face of that radiant 
being who had gone before, to await 
me in the angelhood ; where, beaming 
seraphic upon me forever, it was to be 
to me the embodiment of all ideals of 
loveliness, grace, refinement, love. In 
its every lineament I was to read and 
decipher an endless series of ever fresh 
and most celestial arcana — was contin- 
ually to find new proof of love and wis- 
dom, and of the divine ability to adapt 
human to human. Since the love of 
the mate is next to the love of the 
Maker, it is no profanity to say that, 

1 When I'd been there ten thousand years, 

Bright, happy as the sun, 
I'd have no less days to sing its praise 
Than when I first begun.' 

Instead of through a fast-waning 
honeymoon of love, that face was to 
entrance me while the sun of heaven 
stood in the zenith of heaven — and we 
read that there is no night there, for- 
evermore. Was not this promised sight 
a sufficient cause for excitement ? What 
prospect — save that of a vision of Deity 
— could be better adapted to arouse the 
loftiest and most exquisite emotions? 
What better fitted to gather into one 
all long-cherished feelings of admiration 
and reverence for the noble of the other 
sex — to aggregate and revive all those 
chivalrous, gallant, elevating, purifying, 
tender thoughts which we have ever 
had, with regard to them, in our high- 
est moments ? 

Some reader may say : ' Why will you 
thus attempt to dignify ideas that you 
acknowledge were excited in a confused 
brain, by apparently mischievous or 
irresponsible spirits ? ' I answer, that 
even if the immediate exciting cause 
of this current of ideas was some ill- 
designing being, the ideas themselves 
were not, necessarily, either evil or un- 
dignified ; and that only such portion 
of the brain was addled as would be 
likely to rebel against the obsession. 

Waiting the appointed hour, I sat 



324: 



American Finances and Resources. 



imagining the scene. I saw myself sud- 
denly rising (' sudden Ianthe rose ') 
from the prone body and all circum- 
jacent grossness — rising, through clouds 
and darkness, to some delightsome 
plane of the inner world. A dozen 
yards in front of me, beside a graceful 
tree, would stand ' the only.' We 
would gaze at each other, with in- 
tense scrutiny, for some moments. 
Each would think, ' There is plenty of 
time ; it is to last forever.' We would 
even look about us, still saying nothing. 
Being eternally modelled, fitted, fore- 
ordained, and predestinated for each 
other, love arrows would, of course, 
have pierced our centres of palpitation 
at the first mutual glance. Still, though 
quivering with emotion, neither would 
be disposed to lessen the distance. 
Methought we would even seat our- 
selves on the mossy banks — the dozen 
yards still intervening — and, each lean- 
ing back against a tree, would ' face 
the enemy ' — the eternal joy-sharer, 
sorrow-sharer, worship, wisqlom, love, 
pity, wonder, use, sport, hope-sharer; 
while, occasionally, a premonitory, 
prophetic pang of rapture out of the 
coming eternities of bliss would thrill 



through us. I had even a fancy thai 
there would be no interchange of 
words, no lessening of the coy distance 
of space and manner, during this first 
interview. ' It is to last so long ! so 
long ! ' Again, I fancied that we might 
sit there only weeping, as we looked 
and loved. ' So long ! so long ! ' Ten- 
der, dewy eyes wandering naively, in- 
nocently, over each feature of face and 
form — inquiry, wonder, joy in them — 
pleased surprise, that such and such 
points of the vision should be as they 
are. Indefinite longings becoming defi- 
nite, as all things longed for appear 
embodied, as faith is lost in sight. 
Again, I imagined laconic speech might 
ensue — like the single-line dialogue of 
Greek tragedies. But here the wings 
of imagination drooped, and I could 
only see the separation. She would 
glide toward me. Her warm finger-tips 
would touch my palm, her tender azure 
eyes would beam once fully and closely 
upon me. One moment I would see 
the inner heaven opened ; and the next 
— the familiar furniture of my room 
would be before me. Thus I imagined. 
The curious may learn what actually 
befell, on a future occasion. 



414 



The Love Lucifer. 



THE LOVE LUCIFER 



CHAPTER II. 

I find myself writing upon matters 
connected, at least, with religion, with 
the thought of saying something useful 
— of presenting a valuable experience, 
if not a valuable congeries of new ideas. 
Most readers deeply interested in reli- 
gion are, by this time, demanding that 
I show my colors — present my creed ; 
otherwise they will shut themselves up 
from my influence. As I write, church 
bells are ringing. I know that many 
of those who now assemble to hang 
with a deathly solemnity upon the lips 
of preachers — while death, hell, heaven, 
eternity, atonement are the themes — 
will say : ' He treats lightly the most 
serious matters : he treads with dancing 
pumps on holy ground.' Now I claim 
to be, above all things, an earnest, sol- 
emn person. Yet do I verily believe 
that there is a humorous side to all 
subjects, that is not ignored by even 
the loftiest beings ; and that, in a re- 
stricted sense, it may be said of all well- 
balanced persons, as a philosopher has 
said of children : ' Because they are in 
innocence, therefore they are in peace ; 
and because they are in peace, therefore 
all things are with them full of mirth.' 
It must be admitted, however, that if 
the 'orthodox' creed is wholly cor- 
rect, we find in the Puritans and their 
existing imitators the only consistent 
Christians. In view of the inevitable 
damnation of a majority of the race, 
they set their faces against all mirth ; 
would eat no pleasant bread, and wear 
no beautiful raiment. I followed them 
to the letter, till, the ' naked eye ' not 
being wholly blinded, nor the ear deaf- 
ened by theologic din, I saw that na- 
ture, in all her guises and voices, was 
firmly opposed to all such gloomy 
dogmas. 

In a word, then, as to creed, I find 
no satisfactory platform save that of the 



broadest eclecticism. The motto of 
the old Greek , ' Know that good is in 
all,' is mine. I am aware that the dan- 
ger accruing from this style of creed is, 
that one often gets, in the effort at im- 
partiality, into the meshes of panthe- 
ism ; and then your list of gods many 
and lords many comprises all the chief 
divinities, from Brahm and Buddh to 
Thor ; you priding yourself the while 
upon the consideration shown for ' local 
prejudices ' by your not putting Christ 
at the end of the list. But, after life- 
long investigation, I am not ashamed 
to say, in the words, though not in the 
spirit of Emperor Julian, ' Galilean, 
thou hast conquered ; ' with Augustine, 
1 Let my soul calm itself in Thee ; I saj", 
let the great sea of my soul, that swell- 
eth with waves, calm itself in Thee ; ' 
with De Stael, ' Inconcevable enigme 
de la vie ; que la passion, ni la douleur, 
ni le genie ne peuvent decouvrir, vous 
revelerez-vous a la priere ; ' with prac- 
tical Napoleon, ' I know men, and Jesus 
Christ was not a man ; ' with a Chev- 
alier Bunsen and a Beech er, ' Jesus 
Christ is my God, without any ifs or 
buts.' I can assent more decidedly than 
does Teurlesdrock, in the ' Everlasting 
Nay,' to the doctrine of regeneration. 
I narrow the whole matter down to 
these plain facts : Of all religions, Chris- 
tianity is best calculated to elevate 
man's nature; and of all Christians, 
they reach the highest spiritual con- 
dition who regard Christ as utterly di- 
vine. 

On this other matter that enters so 
largely into my narrative — the conju- 
gality of disembodied spirits — I cannot 
forbear some further discourse before 
proceeding historically. The absurd 
idea is still prevalent that there is no 
sex in heaven. Those who retain this 
notion, despite the revelations of science 
concerning the universality of sex 



The Love Lucifer. 



415 



throughout creation, cannot reason very 
candidly. When we find in the earth 
positives but no negatives, light but 
no heat, strength but no beauty, action 
but no passivity, wisdom but no love, 
intellection but no intuition, reflection 
but no perception, science but no reli- 
gion, then, at last, may we expect to 
see in the heavens men but no women. 

Take the conjugal element from hu- 
man creatures, and you have Hamlet 
without the ghost. Excepting, per- 
haps, the religious, it is the most pow- 
erful, prominent, exacting part of our 
nature. In ' man's unregenerate state,' 
at least, the love story is the most in- 
teresting book, marriage the most in- 
teresting ceremony, true lovers' dalli- 
ance the most interesting sight. For 
the beloved, one relinquishes all else — 
performs the greatest prodigies. Mar- 
riage is the subject most thought of, 
most talked about. Around it cluster 
all the other events of life. Rejoice, 
then, O ' romantic ' youth and maiden, 
now in the days of thy youth ; for this 
flitting romance — so soon interrupted 
by care and grief, by shop and kitch- 
en and nursery, by butcher, baker, tail- 
or, milliner, and cordwainer — is about 
the most genuine experience you will 
have in this world. Therefore, say I, 
cultivate romance. Devour a goodly 
number of the healthier novels. Weep 
and laugh over them — believing every 
word. Amadis de Gaul, even, is a 
better model than Gradgrind. Adore 
each the other sex — positively wor- 
ship ! Both are worshipful (in the ' aib- 
stract'). 

What healthy-minded person loves 
not to behold the eye-sparkle of pure 
admiration between young man and 
maid ? ' They worship, truly, they 
know not what.' In bowing down to 
their ideal, they bow to the real human 
— the purified man or woman of the 
better land. The recluse is ever the 
true prophet and seer, in this as in still 
higher matters. Your modest-eyed 
student, stealing glances of unfeigned 
admiration at ordinary maidens, is not 



such a simpleton as some suppose. His 
seclusion has cleared his vision. He 
sees on through the eons — sees things 
as they will or may be — regards the 
objects of his adoration as he will in 
the angelhood. Why will so many de- 
cry this admiration ? — when they see 
that, not till the youth passes the purely 
romantic age — fourteen to sixteen or 
eighteen — and begins to have common- 
place thoughts of the other sex, does 
mischief arise. 

The idea of eternal conjugality should 
lighten all faces with hope, and should 
have a most conservative influence in 
society. Those who are not very well 
matched, and yet are conscious that 
the very highest earthly bliss comes of 
a right mating, are not content to pass 
through this life without enjoying this 
bliss, if they suppose that it appertains 
solely to earth. So, many of them break 
bounds and bonds. Let these but ac- 
cept the idea that conjugality is one of 
the chief features of the heavenly life, 
and they can settle down steadily to 
the apparent duties of this sphere, con- 
tent with ' peace on earth,' since now 
they feel sure of rapture in heaven— a 
rapture, too, mind you, of a kind with 
which they are somewhat acquainted. 
It is all very well to anticipate the joy 
which ' eye hath not seen,' etc. But 
men need the prospect of an eternal joy 
they know of, as much as they needed 
that awe-inspiring Jehovah should out- 
work in love-inspiring Christ. In view 
of this, among other joys set before 
him, the extra-earnest worker, in public 
or private, can more easily deprive 
himself of that amount of social inter- 
course with the other sex which he 
craves. Such can suffice themselves 
with occasional glimpses of the comple- 
mentary portion of mankind ; and as 
they hurriedly pass seraphic faces in 
the street, they wave the hand of the 
spirit after them, saying : ' I prithee, O 
thou wonder, art human or no ? 5 ; O 
you sweet beautiful ! ' the king's busi- 
ness requires haste.' Providence has 
set our lives so far apart we cannot 



416 



The Love Lucifer. 



hear each other speak.' But you will 
be a woman, and I will be a man, for- 
ever. In paradise, I will read wonderful 
things in those and other such eyes, and 
wonder at you forever. Vale I vale ! ' 

There is a poet claiming to be of the 
supernal life — especially of the supernal 
conjugal — who has written ' epics ' and 
' lyrics,' of which I must honestly say, 
as Emerson, I believe, once honestly 
said of some of the writings of Sweden- 
borg : ' I read them with an unction 
and an afflatus quite indescribable.' 
They lift one to the empyrean like 
nothing else I know of outside the 
Bible. There is such a saintly purity ; 
such a wondrous, rich, mellow joyous- 
ness ; such bounding elasticity of 
spirit; such an evidently irresistible 
gush of song in the heart ; such broad 
catholicity of religion, that, to some, it 
seems impossible that they could have 
been written anywhere but under the 
perpetual midsummer skies of paradise. 
It may show poor taste, but to me, in 
those regions of the upper ether where- 
in Tennyson, Mrs. Browning, and Shel- 
ley grow wing-weary, he soars on 
strong, free pinion. His ' imaginings,' 
if such they are, of immortal life, as 
much surpass in plausibility and nat- 
uralness those of Milton, Dante, and 
Virgil, as the acting of a first-class 
theatre surpasses that seen in the old 
monkish 'mysteries.' This writer, T. 
L. Harris, has won much recognition in 
both hemispheres; would win much 
more if he appeared simply as a poet, 
and did not claim a seer faculty, mak- 
ing many positive statements that can- 
not be verified. He certainly comes up 
to Aristotle's standard, where he says : 
' The object of the poet is not to treat 
the True as it really happened, but as 
it should have happened.' 

And now the story. I left myself 
indulging in reveries concerning the 
expected sight of my invisible charmer. 
The appointed hour came. I was quite 
excited. I knew that the land was al- 
ready full of people who claimed to 
see the sights of the other world as 



spirits see them, and fully expected to 
have my clairvoyant faculty opened. 
But I saw no * sudden Ianthe ; ' and to 
this day have never seen even a kobold, 
a wraith, or a doppelganger ! This 
was doubtless fortunate ; fori was near- 
ly driven into lunacy by the things I 
heard before I reached the end of this 
' youthful adventure.' I should have 
gone ' clean daft ' if the bugaboos had 
been permitted to show me the sights 
they presently promised. 

Soon came again my collocutor with 
explanations. 

' You were in such a state of excite- 
ment that the united efforts of more 
than forty of your spirit friends were 
utterly unavailing for the opening of 
your sight. We, too, became s<$fexcited 
that we lost all control of ourselves, 
and could only weep to hear your 
mournful appeals followed by your sur- 
render of all claims upon me.' .... 
' Do not think that I could ever hope 
to bask beneath the sunshine of your 
smile after having intentionally de- 
ceived you.' 

Then followed much similar feminine 
beguilement ; the faculty for which 
seems to be rather increased by the 
Jordan bath. 

It began to be a noticeable fact that 
their magnetic power over me was such 
that they could cast me down to the 
borders of despair, and raise me thence 
to rapture at will. Thus a few mo- 
ments of such ordinary blandishments 
as the following were the only appar- 
ent means of raising my usually slow- 
moving spirits from a very low to a 
very high pitch. I was complaining 
of the waste of paper, in writing words 
of letters three or four inches high ; did 
not think any law, even a law of nature, 
justified the imposition of such an ex- 
penditure upon a spouse in a separate 
sphere. ' She ' promised to tone down 
the expressions of attachment until she 
could talk as largely as she pleased ; 
and to some further suggestions, re- 
plied : 

' Really, you are quite impertinent, 



The Love Lucifer. 



417 



considering the short time we have 
been married.' .... 

Slightly singular as it may seem to 
those who think that this narration is 
all gammon,' I had gone through the 
usual course of acquaintanceship with 
this airy nothing ; was first distant and 
reserved ; then slightly thawed, though 
still horrified at the thought of having 
all my thoughts read ; and finally, after 
I felt that the invisible eyes had read, 
in my memory, every page of my his- 
tory, was perfectly familiar and at ease 
in the presence this finite searcher of 
hearts. 

I find, next in order, the follow- 
ing : 

' So you wish me to prove that we 
were married, do you ? Well, when 
you become a denizen of this higher, 
but none the less practical sphere, you 
may read, if you please, where, with 
wonder and strange emotion, I read, in 

the heavenly records of marriages.' 

[It was dated about the time of my 
birth.] ' Your banter is not so agree- 
able as your tenderness.' .... 4 You 
are incorrigible. It will take me many 
a long age to bring you to a due sense 
of my importance,' etc. ' Some of my 
friends are beside themselves with 
mirth, at my vain attempts at taming 
a spirit so rude.' Then came another 
promise of opened vision. 'A truly 
solemn scene is at hand. Spend the 
interval in prayer.' 

But again there was something 
wrong about the spiritual zinc or 
acid, and the electrical machinery 
would not work. The fair or foul de- 
ceiver (who knows ?) came up very 
solemn after this failure. 

' ' Though all men forsake thee,' said 
Peter, ' yet will not I forsake thee.' So 
now, when the highest spirits of heaven 
have fled in terror and dismay, your 
poor darling will not forsake you. 
Well might I sit, like Job's friends, 
seven days, ay, seventy times seven, 
in silent contemplation of him who — 
wo is me ! — fears that I am but another 
[Delilah, commissioned by his enemies 
vol. v.— 28 



to betray him into their hands. What 
can I say ? what do ? Oh that I had 
never seen the glorious light of the sun 
or the pure myriads of my happy home, 
rather than I should have beheld that 
sight last night. How can I explain 
the fact that he, whom I, at least, be- 
lieve to be heaven's most supreme 
(string of adjectives) favorite, is sitting 
here with his unutterable but unrepin- 
ing sorrow looking forth from his .... 
eyes.' 

Just here I caught a glimpse of my 
asininity, and turning in wrath and 
scorn to my Titania, said, mockingly : 

4 ' While I thine amiable cheeks do 
coy ! " 

To this she replies : ' Do not heap 
additional reproaches upon me, by any 
such awfully ludicrous quotations.' .... 
' So you think that your Delilah is 
striving to gain time by all these pious 
and otherwise interesting remarks ? ' 
. . . . 'Nay, do not with loathing 
cast me from you as an an unholy and 
hateful thing ! for then, oh, what I 
should then do or be, I cannot, dare 
not even think.' . . . . ' Again you see 
my woman's heart cannot suppress its 
emotions toward one who still hopes 

that he has been talking with — 

; and who says that, for him to 

be convinced of this, is to be convinced 
that she who has been talking with 
him has not intentionally deceived 
him.' 

She then wrought upon my feelings 
by portraying her sufferings, until, in 
my maudlin condition, I was casting 
about to find how I should help her ; 
just as you sometimes see a drunken 
tramp striving to pull his drunken pal 
out of a ditch. 

' So, most self-forgetful, you begin to 
think that you ought to help me bear 
my burden ; as you have planned sit- 
ting there, with your little friend en- 
circling you in her so warm embrace. 
But why should I inform you of such 
fact, as this last, until you are con- 
vinced that all you have heard is not 
the wily utterance of seducing and 



418 



The Love Lucifer. 



hellish spirits? Try not to entertain 
such awful suspicions. As to the cause 
of these lamentable failures, I can only 
suppose that the Lord wishes to make 
us, who wrongly prophesied, sensible 
of our inabifity to foretell future events.' 

Then came some bungled Scriptures 
about my ' mission,' which roused my 
ire. My taunts drew forth this re- 
sponse : 

' Why do you love to ridicule my 
tenderness, and speak so awfully to 
one who has no other human source of 
perfect happiness ? ' 

The day following, the solemn dodge 
was again resorted to. I began to feel 
a sort of awe creeping over me. My 
affectionate friend thereupon wrote : 

' What a change a few minutes have 
wrought in you. Yes ! yes ! the morn- 
ing light is breaking. The fiery trial is 
complete. As I write there rests upon 
your now placid brow a glorious and 
marvellously beautiful crown. The 
cup is drained. ' To him that sat in 
the valley and shadow of death light 
has sprung up.' And now awe seizeth 
me : for there standeth, as yet a long 
way off, one whose form is like to that 
of the Son of Man. In a very little 
while, now, the great event must inev- 
itably occur. He who stands upon the 
holy mount prepares to open your sight, 
and give you your commission. How 
can we see him face to face and live ! 
Let not a passing suspicion of further 
delay disturb you. Already you begin 
to feel the influence of his approach. 
Well may you heave a sigh — as one 
who experiences a sudden and unlooked- 
for relief. In less than ten minutes the 
Lord will appear to you. So make 
ready, in solemn meditation and pray- 
er, for the most solemn event of your 
or any other man's life is at hand.' 

' If the vision tarry, wait for it,' is 
the only scripture that seems appli- 
cable to my visions : for still they came 
not. «Yet some very serious and sub- 
stantial experiences now fell to my lot, 
which shall be the theme of another 
chapter. 



CHAPTER m. 

As manager of this exhibition, I 
would request the orchestra to play 
something gloomy and grand, during 
the remainder of the performance ; 
something weird, mysterious; some- 
thing in which you can hear the sough- 
ing of the wind through the pines of 
the Hartz Mountains or the Black 
Forest. A passage from a Faust opera 
or Der Freischutz might meet the case ; 
for it began to be intimated to me, 
now that I was sufficiently clairaudient 
to be able to dispense almost entirely 
with the pencil, that his Satanic Majesty 
was no indifferent spectator of the prep- 
aration of the man who was about to 
interfere so signally with his plans and 
pursuits. Thereupon there began to 
steal over me for the first time, 

' A sense of something dreadful, something 
near.' 

However it was managed, from this 
moment till the end of this phase of 
life I am narrating, I had an almost 
constant sense of the presence of ' genii 
of the pit,' of vast intelligence, cruel as 
ever Satan was imagined, relentless as 
fate, cold as Dante's ice hells could 
make them. At first, some influence 
led me to review the traditional history 
and prospects of my supposed distin- 
guished visitor, at some length. I dis- 
cussed the state of his case with no 
little unction, though shaking in my 
boots, and in momentary expectation 
of being gobbled up, body and soul, 
and whisked off in sulphurous smoke, 
with only a sulphur-burnt hole in the 
carpet to mark the spot where I saw 
the last of earth. 

Presently my inseparable companion 
broke in with : 

' He hears you ! he hears you ! and 
never may it be my lot again to look 
upon — ' . . . . ' There he is again, 
glaring with inexpressible rage upon 
the comparatively insignificant man 
who just now so plainly revealed to him 
' the true state of the case.' I am al- 
most afraid to look upon that awful 



The Love Lucifer. 



419 



Tisage. * The state of the case is it ? ' 
he exclaims. ' We will see what is the 
state.' ' — 

There is a break here in the manu- 
script, which is resumed thus : ' You 
have conquered ! frantic with rage he 
has fled, never, I trust, to return.' 

How will I remember what happened 
during that awful pause? It was 
spent, I supposed, in a hand-to-hand con- 
flict with the Prince of Darkness ; the 
agreeableness of which was not en- 
hanced by my vivid recollection of the 
' bit of a disco oshin ' between Christian 
and Apollyon depicted in the old 
family Pilgrim's Progress. We are 
truly 'the stuff that dreams are made 
of.' What mattered it to me, on that 
bland summer afternoon, since I was 
of this opinion, whether it was Beelze- 
bub himself or some departed ' blazing 
tinman,' with a suit of his majesty's 
old clothes on, while himself, all snug 
at home, 

' Sat in his easy chair, 
Drinking his sulphur tea/ 

That was certainly one of the most 
awful moments of my life, in which I 
felt the first dreadful rush of this invis- 
ible tiger. It seemed as if he swooped 
toward me to annihilate me in a mo- 
ment ; but was restrained by a higher 
power. His coming was like the rush 
of a fifteen-inch shell past one's head. 

As soon as I saw that the first onset 
did not destroy me, I gathered strength 
to face the monster ; for a tongue com- 
bat seemed all that was permitted him. 
He put me through my theological 
paces at an awful rate — using the So- 
cratic dialectic — growling out questions 
in the tones of a cathedral organ, that 
made me shiver. Oh that I could re- 
member that fearful catechism ! It 
would make a tract for which the Tom 
Paine Association would pay a high 
price. He drove me — partly, I suppose, 
by magnetic force — step by step, from 
my cherished religious opinions. My 
reasons for believing in the cardinal 
doctrines of Christianity seemed to burn 
like straw before his fiery rhetoric, and 



to turn to dust beneath the ponderous 
blows of his iron logic. He pushed 
me away from all I had esteemed re- 
liable in the universe, till I seemed 
to stand on the verge of creation. 
There I hung with the strength of ter- 
ror. Then I found poet Campbell true 
to nature, where he speaks of hope 
standing intact ' 'mid Nature's funeral 
pyre.' I insisted upon ' hoping,' in 
spite of all his fiery hail. 

After he had beaten down all my 
defences, he began to jeer at me with 
fierce sneers and goblin laughter that 
froze my blood. ' So I was the con- 
temptible manikin who dared to en- 
tertain the idea of equality with him 
— the Star of the Morning — one breath 
of whose nostrils would wither me into 
nonentity. So I presumed to stand 
up and face him, who had, in his time, 
scattered the hosts of heaven ! If it 
were not for those cursed, white-livered 
things (angels) that stood in the way, 
he would swoop down and destroy me 
in an instant.' 

Having found and maintained foot- 
hold for several minutes on the rock of 
hope, I began to consider how weak 
things had of erst confounded the 
things that were mighty, and soon the 
wirepullers behind the scenes (whoever 
they were) had me smiting him hip 
and thigh. I ' began in weakness, but 
ended in power.' At first a few mut- 
tered remonstrances, but finally whole 
Ironsides broadsides, with the result 
above named. The words of my antag- 
onist, during this encounter, rang 
through my brain with awful distinct- 
ness. For a day or two I had been 
communicating partly with the pencil, 
and partly by clairaudience, eked out 
by writing in the air with my fore- 
finger. But this demon, or demon pro 
tern., needed not to write his words : his 
' trumpet gave no uncertain sound.' 

The thoughtful reader will perceive 
what a strong point my magnetizers 
gained by this scene. After disappoint- 
ing me so many times, they could not, 
with all their power over me, have kept 



420 



The Love Lucifer. 



me from throwing the whole thing over- 
board, without resorting to some such 
coup d'etat. Being, doubtless, on better 
terms with the infernal than with the 
supernal regions, these denizens of the 
Intermediate Limbo (we will suppose 
that my strange guests were mostly 
of this sort of nondescripts) had per- 
haps induced some dona fide demon to 
act the part of the king of them all, ' for 
this night only.' It certainly was an 
' immense success.' I, to be sure, had 
not received the expected commission : 
but had I not fought the great red 
dragon, and, like another St. George, 
pinned him to the earth, through su- 
pernatural aid ? Here was a substan- 
tial success. I write this merrily enough 
now ; but was not often merry then — 
was indeed acting great, real tragedy. 

I was not long to enjoy this trumph. 
The word came : ' Again he comes ! ' 
Then I had another long, hard fight ; 
but this time was not pushed so near 
the wall. I was then told by my spirit- 
ual adviser and Circe of the unbounded 
admiration expressed for me by those 
who had listened to this ' ever-memor- 
able ' disputation. 

The attempt to craze me, or — putting 
the best face on it — to show me now 
spiritists are generally crazed, now began 
in downright earnest. All that night, 
despite my entreaties to be permitted 
to sleep, I was kept awake, and busied 
with a variety of ' extremely important ' 
business. I am naturally a solid, regu- 
lar sleeper, and do not prosper upon 
Napoleon or Humboldt portions of re- 
pose ; but now could only suit my 
persecutors by rising on one elbow in 
bed, and ' wrestling ' for the salvation 
of my next neighbor. They sedulously 
poured into my mind all manner of 
apocrypha concerning this gentleman's 
shortcomings — about the necessity of 
praying for and at him, and about the 
effects of my efforts, i. e., bringing a 
streak of celestial light upon him — until 
I was almost ready to wish that he 



might be 



rather than that I should 



have any such unseasonable work to 



perform in his behalf. But they kept 
me at it, straight through the night 
and a large portion of the next day ; 
and finally induced me to go, much 
against my will, to reveal to him some 
of my experiences, and to endeavor to 
force from him an acknowledgment 
that what I had heard about him was 
true. 

The attempt to cause at least a tem- 
porary aberration of my intellect now 
becomes very plain in the manuscript. 
Every idea is uttered in the most ex- 
citing manner. All statements and 
prognostications about my neighbor 
having proved false (he was amazed at 
my procedure), the invisible busy bodies 
boiled over thus : 

' He has lied ! he has lied to you ! 
and if you would preserve your reason, 
go and read the papers to him. He 
had schooled himself to show no emo- 
tion, and you showed enough to excite 
his worst, most hideous fears. So go, 
for Heaven's sake ! He quailed once, 
and only once, before your not suffi- 
ciently steady gaze. Woe ! woe ! woe ! 
Now what shall be done ? ' . . . [Evi- 
dently trying to get up a teapot tem- 
pest.] ' Do not strive to unravel this 
mystery in that fiercely keen way, or 
this evil spirit will have to give place 
to a more expert deceiver. God w r ill 
certainly do something soon to set these 
matters straight, or I shall cease to be ! ' 
[She had said annihilation was pos- 
sible !] ' Your father wishes to speak 
to you.' 

A fatherly spirit it was truly — was 
for driving me mad offhand, but over- 
shot the mark. 

' Son, this is awful ! I can only say 
to you, be calm and cool, for you will 
need to be both to get free from this 
snare of Satan, so well conceived. Bet- 
ter go to supper now (for appearance 
sake) : after that, pray for help. When 
you took away those books [after read- 
ing extracts to the neighbor], the whole 
crew of devils,' etc., etc. 

This exciting language ' brought me 
up with a round turn.' I saw at once 



The Love Lucifer. 



421 



the object of the person who was talk- 
ing with me. So I brought the affair 
to a full stop, as far as the use of my 
hand was concerned. I simply added, 
on that leaf— speaking now for my- 
self: 

' I will hear no further. This part 
of my discipline is finished.' 

But I w*as forced to hear, whether I 
wrote or not. I had come to this wis- 
dom too late. I fully believe that, as 
far as my ability to prevent the catas- 
trophe was concerned, I was then and 
there a possessed person — a slave of 
spirits — as utterly bound to do the will 
of my magnetizers as ever a ' subject ' 
was. Though I cannot be persuaded 
that all these beings, from whom un- 
seen I had heard so much, were ' only 
evil continually,' no ' harmonialist ' can 
persuade me that those who now began 
to play with me, as a cat plays with a 
mouse, were other than evil. In all 
imaginable ways, they strove to show 
me how utterly I had lost self-command 
and self-control. (I am esteemed ob- 
stinate by nature.) 

What is very singular, I now lost 
sight of my ' prima donna.' It would 
seem natural that a Delilah would, at 
least, have come with a jeering ' The 
Philistines be upon thee, Samson.' 
But no, not till this great tribulation 
was over did I hear from l her.' 

That evening and night were spent, 
mostly, in showing me that I was no 
longer my own master. There was not, 
however, that continuous hell-blast 
upon mo that so scorched my soul on 
the following afternoon. The cats were 
tossing me in their velvet paws — only 
occasionally protruding a sharp claw as 
a reminder, until they could feel surer 
of their victim. They would say to 
me : ' Now we will exalt you to heav- 
en;' and up I went, higher, higher, 
higher into the empyrean, until I heard 
the music of the spheres, and all things 
were ablaze with light and glory. 
Again they would say : ' Now go down 
into hell ; ' and the scene changed as 
suddenly as do those of a ten-cent pan- 



orama, when a midnight storm at sea 
or a volcanic eruption is about to be 
rolled in view : I went down ad imis — 
' down to the bottom of the sea — the 
earth with her bars was around me for- 
ever.' Blank horror and anguish seized 
me. Hope fled to its impregnable cor- 
ner of my heart, till the calamity was 
overpast. A hasheesh agony was upon 
me, as before I had known its bound- 
less bliss. And thus variously I fared 
through all that second night of sleep- 
lessness. They probably sent me up 
and down this scale of sensation twenty 
times during eight hours. This night 
I was not at all sleepy. A few more 
such would have finished the business ; 
and there would have been ' another 
awful effect of the spiritual delusion ' 
to chronicle. The honest verdict of 
the first century would have been : ' An- 
other possessed of devils or devil-crazed.' 
The wretches well knew that insomnia 
is an excellent preparation for insanity. 

Toward morning a new scheme was 
invented. Some ostensible good friend 
informed me, in a business-like way, 
that the work of the morrow for me — 
the new Saul of Tarsus — was to set out 
for a certain town in Vermont, where 
I should find my Ananias ; who ' would 
show me what things I should do.' So 
the faithful slave of the genii prepared 
to obey. I packed a carpet bag, and 
went early to the residence of a medi- 
cal friend, who had been dabbling in 
the same arcana. I gave him a sketch 
of what I had experienced; yet, for 
some reason, did not start for Vermont, 
but remained with him all the morn- 
ing. My invisible monitors sent me 
out into the street several times, to find 
people who could not be found. (Any- 
thing to keep up their influence.) 

Toward noon the fact came plainly 
to me that an effort was being made to 
disturb, if not destroy, my reason. I be- 
gan to find my ideas becoming inco- 
herent in spite of hugest effort. I 
called my friend, and said to him, 
through set teeth, but as coolly as pos- 
sible : 



422 



The Love Lucifer. 



1 1 find myself to be thoroughly and 
utterly a magnetic subject, an abject 
subject of mischievous spirits. They 
are striving to derange my faculties. 
I am exceedingly alarmed to find that 
they are trying, with much success, to 
render my ideas incoherent. It is only 
by a very great effort of will that I am 
enabled to speak these words distinctly 
to you. As far as my private power of 
resistance is concerned, I am gone. Do 
exert your powerful magnetism ; per- 
haps you can drive them off.' 

He was much distressed, and exerted 
himelf mightily (he was a professed 
electrician), combining will power 
with that ancient agent, prayer, to ex- 
orcise the evil influence. But his efforts 
were useless, as the vagabonds well 
knew, before they brought me there 
on exhibition. They had not spent the 
week in vain. I had sold myself to 
them as squarely as fools ever did in 
German legend. 

When dinner was announced, the 
doctor wished me to accompany Mm. 
I refused, and he left me, to take a hasty 
meal. Finding, when he was gone, 
that I was growing worse, I went into 
the street, determined that if I was to 
be crazed, I would not sit there and let 
him watch the operation. I walked 
on, vowing that I would not turn to- 
ward home until my faculties were re- 
stored ; and execrating my folly in per- 
mitting the enslavement! On, on I 
rushed, my head all ablaze with ' od ' 
that had no business there, and pray- 
ing as I never had prayed before. I 
took the Gowanus road toward Green- 
wood. Perhaps it was some defunct 
rogue there interred, who was leading 
me on to ' rave among the tombs.' 

Arrived at a spot where a little tree- 
capped promontory overhangs the 
beach, I turned aside, beneath the pro- 
jection, and sat down on a log — like 
Jonah under the gourd — and, gazing 
out on the rippling waves of the bay, 
desired that death or relief might come. 
I was determined to sit there until God 
or Satan made good his claim upon 



me. Suddenly relief came. The fierce 
onset upon my intellect ceased. I was 
made whole. I ' leaped and walked.' 
The means of my relief I never knew. 

But my lesson was not complete. I 
had but just informed my medical 
friend of my deliverance (he had 
scoured the neighborhood, and inform- 
ed several of the cause of his fears), 
when there were mutterings and growl- 
ings of another approaching storm. 
The messengers of Satan sent to buffet 
me gave me to understand that they 
had not abandoned their prey, but 
were sure of it yet. They poured the 
wrath of hell upon my defenceless head 
that afternoon. I have not, hitherto, 
attempted to offer much direct proof to 
the uninitiated that my experiences, 
in this connection, were other than hal- 
lucination. That which now occurred 
is, as it seems to me, in the nature of 
such proof. Here was I thoroughly 
alarmed for my safety, and extremely 
anxious to get rid of my tormentors. 
Yet, not for a single moment now, could 
I close my mental ears to their horrid 
clangor of threats and imprecations: 
for, throwing off all restraint, they 
flooded me with Billingsgate. They 
cursed and damned me, and all per- 
sons, things, and ideas esteemed by me, 
in the most approved style. Indeed, 
the swearing exceeded anything I ever 
heard on the Mississippi and Alabama 
river boats, when forced, for lack of 
room, to sleep on the floor of the saloon, 
almost under the feet of the chivalry, dur 
ing their midnight gambling carousals. 

The mode of speech is not easily 
described. Sometimes the words came 
slowly and distinctly. Again there 
would be merely thought-panorama 
presented. A complete statement or 
view of things can be flashed into the 
mind in an instant. Therefore the lan- 
guage of spirits is of vastly greater 
compass than that of men. These im- 
mortal blackguards could vomit more 
oaths and other blasphemy in five 
minutes, than a mortal one could in an 
hour. If it is difficult to translate from 



The Love Lucifer. 



423 



one earth-language into another, how 
much harder must it be to bring the 
ideas of an inner sphere into outward 
forms of expression ! 

They told me that it was their inten- 
tion to open my clairvoyant faculty 
now with a vengeance. For, having 
fairly accomplished it, they would wor- 
ry me to death or madness by the con- 
tinual sight and hearing of all that hell 
could show or conjure up. I only wish 
that a few of those Sadducees who phi- 
losophize all this sort of thing into 
moonshine, could be, for a while, as 
sore beset as T was on that eventful 
day ! It would need but a few minutes' 
parley with these ' fierce Ephesian 
beasts ' to induce them to repeat the 
language of an older sceptic, who re- 
turned from the dead to the Mend who 
had discussed immortality with him, 
and who exclaimed, as he passed from 
Bight : 

' Michael ! Michael ! vera sunt ilia ! ' 

The scheme of the diabolians seemed 
so feasible that I was greatly perplexed. 
They had shown themselves able to 
keep me awake the two preceding 
nights ; and I knew that, if permitted, 
they could accomplish their purpose in 
that way alone. How much, then, 
would the perpetual sight of fiery fly- 
ing dragons, horned satyrs, and other 
hideous half-human creatures, tearing 
around, with mouths agape to take 
me in — while other lost souls flitted 
about as flying serpents, bats, and owls 
— hasten the evil work. I thought 
over all the horrible forms portrayed 
in the Catholic purgatory pictures, and 
described by delirium tremens subjects, 
until I was a thousand times more anx- 
ious to have the eyes of my spirit kept 
shut, than I ever had been to have 
them opened. 

I tried to exorcise the foe by reading 
the Bible ; but this only increased their 

jeering at the ' fool,' whom they 

had worked hard to get, had got, and 
meant to keep, in spite of ' bell, book, 
and candle.' Truly 'their mouths 
were full of cursing and bitterness.' 



Did space permit, and were it not that 
the printing of oaths, which has be- 
come so fashionable even in respectable 
periodicals, is hurtful to morals, I could 
fill pages with their jeers, taunts, blas- 
phemies, threats, and execrations. 

I left my private room, and went 
among the household, in hopes that, 
amid busy outer scenes, the hold of tho 
invisible tigers would be loosed. But 
then, while conversing on commonplace 
subjects, I realized more fully than ever 
upon what a fearful precipice the heed- 
less spiritist is ever sporting. For, 
clearer, more distinct, came threats, 
curses, goblin laughter ; and ' Fool ! 
dolt ! ' was the cry. 

' Simpleton, etc., think you that the 
company of women and children will 
save you, when the mightiest spirits 
(angels they call themselves) cannot 
now rend you from our grasp ? As 
soon as we choose, we will tear your 
silly soul out of your carcase; and 
then we will make a veritable Lucifer 
of you. ' Lucifer ! Lucifer ! star of 
the morning ! how art thou fallen, and 
become as one of us ! ' Ha ! ha ! ha ! 
yes ! yes ! you must go with us. We 
fancy you. For a callow priest, you 
have a deal of music in you. Would- 
be Samson, you must grind in oui 
prison house and sport in our temple ; 
the pillars whereof you can never cause 
to tremble.' 

They said that I was a ' coward — 
dared not face a set of shadows, fig- 
ments of the brain, empty nothings.' 
I saw that ' vain was the help of man ; ' 
and, retiring to my room, had an awful 
season of worse than ' temptation com- 
bats.' 

Then came the last scene in the tragic 
part of my unromantic experience. 
One of the artful dodgers, having trans- 
formed himself into an angel of light 
(in my hearing, not in my sight), in- 
formed me, at about eight o'clock in 
the evening, that, though my destruc- 
tion appeared imminent, there was one 
way of escape left. My own prayers 
were useless : but if I would get down 



4*4 



The Love Lucifer. 



on my knees, and repeat a confession 
and supplication at his dictation, it 
might avail. Enslaved as I was, I of 
course complied ; and then underwent 
a humiliation that, even in my horrified 
state, was veiy bitter. I had always, 
in my most puritanical days, kicked 
at the doctrine that we are all such 
abominable, hell-deserving, self -degrad- 
ed creatures, responsible for our own 
ruin, that it is the wonder of creation 
that God would give our souls any 
least chance of heaven. I had always 
felt with Tennyson : 

' Thou wilt not leave us in the dust ; 
Thou madest man, and Thou art just* 
But now I was forced to change all 
this ; and for once I uttered a perfectly 
orthodox prayer. Slow and distinct 
came the words, which I must perforce 
repeat as slowly, though every one was 
a bitter pill. I was made to say that I 
was entirely mistaken in supposing 
myself a Christian (in the ' evangelical ' 
sense) ; that I had been a fool, a brag- 
gart, a sort of impostor ; that my life 
had been one series of shams and fol- 
lies ; that I had disgraced my religious 
profession, etc., etc., ad nauseam, wind- 
ing up with the abject declaration that 
I deserved to go straight to ' the city 
of Dis, and the three-headed dog ; ' 
and that if T was spared, it would be 
' a miracle of mercy.' 

The higher powers must have thought 
that I had swallowed enough of this 
hell-broth ; for, at this juncture, the 
dictation and compulsion suddenly 
ceased. I stood upon my feet, no longer 
a slave. It seemed as if some grand, 
calm Ithuriel had touched w T ith his 
spear-point the venomous toad that sat 
by my ear, or the wily serpent that 
4 held me (enchanted) with his glitter- 
ing eye.' From that moment to this, I 
have not been, for an instant, seriously 
annoyed by invisible disturbers of the 
peace. * 



A sweet quiet came )ver me ; I ^ zvA 
to bed and slept soundly. The nexl 
day I determined to complete the exor- 
cism by walking a dozen miles into the 
country, to visit a relation. The only 
trace of the fearful scenes through which. 
I had passed, consisted in the fact that 
my head was still all ablaze with the 
foul, gross magnetic fluids (if my ex- 
tormentors ; and was so hot that I 
found it agreeable to walk with my 
hat off. I was two days getting rid of 
the heat. 

Though I had no more sulphur tea 
to drink, I was not yet w T eaned fiom 
the invisible milk and water. I was 
at once informed, by ' respectable ap- 
pearing ' spirits, that my trials had ap- 
peared necessary, because I had thrown 
myself open to promiscuous communi- 
cation with the other world — a thing 
peculiarly dangerous in my case ; and 
that I could now see the propriety of 
never again surrendering my manhood, 
my individuality, and my common 
sense to any brigand in or out of the 
body. I was also told that it never had 
been intended to use me for any impor- 
tant mediumistic purpose, except so far 
as my experience might be useful. So 
I gradually let the thing drop. Regard- 
ing the new light as scientific rather 
than religious, I long since pigeon-holed 
it among my sciences. I sardonically 
tell total Sadducees that I have placed 
it among the exact sciences. 

I am sorry that I am unable to en- 
lighten the novel-reading reader further 
concerning the ' prima donna ; ' but 
that is a delicate subject under existing 
circumstances. So presenting, here- 
with, the bright and sulphurous end 
of the Lucifer Match under the nose of 
a discerning public, I w r ill watch tie 
upcurling and dilating of nostrils. As 
I pen these last lines, the live lady 
looking over my shoulder suiih s scorn- 
fully. 



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